bands not groups....
 

I threw this idea out at PEQ and they said though promising it could never happen there, so on thier suggestion I will share the idea on this board. If someone has already thought of this then I am sorry ;)

First off I want to say I realize the mission of PEQ is live simulation and I think thats great and if this falls too far off the chart then I accept that. That said I wanted to throw a crazy topic out there.

First with the reasoning behind it and the human motivation. One thing many have experienced (I have heard it expressed on live and here) is you make a character you start playing with people and make friends and get to know them and then they (or you) leave for a week or so and when they come back you have outleveled them greatly and your new found friend is lost because you can no longer group with them and hangout. I think this is a large reason for people to tire of trying to solo all the time or box and leave PEQ. I know everyone brags about the ease of leveling to 65, that's fine, we think you are uber and your saying that only confirms it three fold! Entering this world alone or refusing to box is a cold cold place unless you are a necro or a mage and then its still really cold . So motivations defined.

Would there be some way to have a virtual group so that you could sacrifice a portion of your experience to their character? I heard someone come on the other day and mention this "Does this game have bands? Where people who are not online still get experience from the band to keep them the same level?" I personally thought this was genius but I have no idea on how hard it would be to implement. Just curiuos.

Bands
 

Well I can't give you much info myself, just a modeler and not a programmer, but this sounds alittle related to the newbie monk Npc *Tomer Instogle* quest where you have to bring him back to the his guild and whatever hurts you he'll attack.

I guess you could look at how that works, maybe have a merchant where you have a list of items to buy Ex: white note,blue note, red note, yellow note, etc.
When you give back the note you bought, a quest triggers a spawn that acts like tomer instogle and maybe modify your exp to 50-60% or whichever and he'll follow you around and help you out if your attacked or maybe even show as a pet.

Like the white could be for a level 5 npcs, blue level 10, yellow level 15 etc or maybe even at higher levels there could be items called bands like *Healing band* or *Warrior Band* that could have like 3 npcs following you around Healing band maybe a cleric, enchanter, druid and warrior band a warrior, monk, ranger.

Idk its a fun concept. I see the people that enjoy grouping more might not like it cuz the people that like to solo will just have hired mercs or bands forcing them to do the same cept the bands Ai will probbaly keep some soloers to just stick with normal groups unless the AI is fairly intelligent.

Ah, I think you misunderstood. My idea is to be able to sacrifice your own exp to level your friends who are not online at the same rate. So a band would be like a party but even when they are offline they get exp from your efforts and you get less exp to make up the difference.

I have thought of mercenaries too like you said very diablo 2. Also not a bad idea. but doesnt seem as cool as leveling your offline firends without having to bot them.

Bands
 

Oh, hmm well you got me there :D .

Actually, I had been sketching out some ideas regarding this from games like EQ2 and Vanguard - where I believe they offer "fellowships" or something of the sort. I cannot promise anything would happen anytime soon, but I see it as totally feasible (as a custom add-on). Simply join a 6-man "band", and as the members online gain xp, a portion could go to the offline member(s).

I know how to shove the xp into player data, the part I was investigating is how to make the server comprehend there are "grouped players offline"... since that is not how it functions now.

Totally doable, imo. But like I said, not anytime soon unless someone picks up the project (like Magoth did with his Bots).

Great idea though.

Shards of Dalaya has this so I'm sure it's doable, but it would probably be a bit of work.

I would kill for their server code... ;)